Opera State of Mobile Advertising: iOS continues to deliver the highest eCPM

Opera Software published its Q3 State of Mobile Advertising report, sharing key data and trends in mobile advertising worldwide. The Opera advertising platform — based on Opera’s subsidiaries AdMarvel, Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising — serves more than 10,000 mobile sites and apps, with 40+ billion ad impressions per month and is on-track to deliver more than $400 million in revenue to mobile publishers in 2012.

Here are the highlights:

iOS continues to deliver the highest eCPM with iPad and iPhone garnering $4.42 and $1.48 eCPMs, respectively. Android slipped down in the rankings with $0.88, well below RIM at $1.06.

Sports became the no. 1 category for mobile ad revenue, and mobile sites and apps in the Music, Video & Media category also grew this quarter, both capturing 30% of overall revenue, making them the highest earners. Business, Finance & Investing properties consistently generate more revenue per impression than any other category.

Apps took the top spot in the third quarter by generating 73% of revenue within the Opera ad platform, while the remaining 27% came from the mobile web. Traffic measurement showed 8 in 10 visits on the Opera ad platform came from mobile apps, compared to 2 in 10 via the mobile web.

Compared to the rest of the world, mobile users in the United Kingdom trend towards interaction with content in Arts & Entertainment and Health, Fitness & Self Help. They are also four times more likely to use a BlackBerry.